The Comprehensive Darkmoon Faire Preview

 

Costumed Entertainer

Costumed Entertainer

Mediocre aggressive card that could be fringe playable but will likely be passed over for stronger options. The weak initial body hurts. Just look at Wriggling Horror in comparison.

Score: 1

Parade Leader

Parade Leader

Utility is too narrow.

Score: 1

Prize Vendor

Prize Vendor

Solid 2-drop for Murloc decks. Unlikely to be strong enough for weird milling purposes.

Score: 2

Classes: Paladin, Shaman

Rock Rager

Rock Rager

Faces stiff competition.

Score: 1

Showstopper

Showstopper

Tech card people will be baited into playing for $500, Alex.

Score: 1

Wriggling Horror

Wriggling Horror

This is the sleeper aggro card of the set. Mini-Fungalmancer. Will likely be ubiquitous in aggressive decks.

Score: 4

Classes: Aggro decks

Banana Vendor

Banana VendorBananas(231).png

This is much worse than Banana Buffoon since it’s very risky to play from behind. Wandmaker and Cobalt Spellkin are better spell generators for Yogg-purposes.

Score: 1

Darkmoon Dirigible

Darkmoon DirigibleDarkmoon Dirigible (Corrupted).png

This card is quite good on turn 3 and then scales extremely well later. Comparable to Goody Two-Shields, which we know is very strong. Scarlet Crusader in shambles.

Score: 2

Classes: Aggro decks.

Darkmoon Statue

Darkmoon StatueDarkmoon Statue (Corrupted).png

Just a little spooky.

Score: 1

Gyreworm

Gyreworm

Seems to be designed for an Elemental Mage, and yet we think even that deck wouldn’t run it.

Score: 1

Inconspicuous Rider

Inconspicuous Rider

This might be the strongest neutral of the set. They actually went and printed Battlecry Mad Scientist. The madmen.

Score: 4

Classes: Hunter, Mage, Rogue

Circus Amalgam

Circus Amalgam

Very good filler card for Menagerie and N’Zoth decks. If even one of these decks make it to the meta, Amalgam will be played. The baseline stats are just very good on top of the taunt, which is important for N’Zoth. Not really a power creep on Chillwind Yeti though, because it dies to a Hungry Crab.

Score: 3

Classes: Menagerie/Tribal/N’Zoth decks.

Circus Medic

Circus MedicCircus Medic (Corrupted).png

A new Lifedrinker for Quest Shaman? Intriguing.

Score: 2

Classes: Shaman

Fantastic Firebird

Fantastic Firebird

This card is almost pushed to the point of being generically playable.

Score: 1

Knife Vendor

Knife Vendor

The worst kind of Lifedrinker.

Score: 1

Fleethoof Pearltusk

Fleethoof PearltuskFleethoof Pearltusk (Corrupted).png

This might be one of the stronger beasts to summon with N’Zoth, but it’s so tough to corrupt (6 mana cards are a huge investment for most decks) and so painfully weak on-curve, we just can’t get behind it.

Score: 1

Optimistic Ogre

Optimistic Ogre

Good stats for the cost.

Score: 1

Claw Machine

Claw Machine

My claws don’t catch.

Score: 1

Strongman

StrongmanStrongman (Corrupted).png

Malfurion gets a bigger Anubisath Defender. Should be a staple in ramping Druid decks, incredible with Survival of the Fittest/Guardian Animals/Cenarion Ward.

Score: 3

Classes: Druid

Safety Inspector

Safety Inspector

This card is so impressively bad. A Dire Mole that takes away your most playable card in the early game.

Score: 1

K’thir Ritualist

K'thir Ritualist

We just love giving the opponent an on-curve play for a slightly better Fierce Monkey.

Score: 1

Derailed Coaster

Derailed CoasterDarkmoon Rider.png
Would this see play at 4 mana?

Score: 1

Horrendous Growth

Horrendous GrowthHorrendous Growth (Corrupted).png

Horrendously bad. Its scaling isn’t close to being worth sitting in your hand for multiple turns.

Score: 1

Carnival Clown

Carnival ClownCarnival Clown (Corrupted).png

This is potentially the strongest win condition available to the Druid class, alongside Survival of the Fittest. Get ready to face some clowns on ladder.

Score: 4

Classes: Druid

Darkmoon Rabbit

Darkmoon Rabbit

Can’t wait for the 1 mana 10/10 in the next expansion.

Score: 1

Silas Darkmoon

Silas DarkmoonThis Way(368705).pngThat Way(368706).png

Expect to see less of this card with the expansion’s launch.

Score: 1

C’Thun, the Shattered

C'Thun, the Shattered

C’Thun is the slowest Old God, which makes some players believe it will be the least competitive of the four. While it’s certainly true that C’Thun is slow, its win condition is so powerful that it’s very possible that a class ends up abusing it well. It might be the most challenging Old God to build a deck around.

We look at Rogue as a class suitable to utilize C’Thun due to the availability of Preparation as well as its mana cheating draw mechanics in the Galakrond shell. How about Libroom Paladin? The deck is already heavy in cycle and doesn’t have the most explosive finishing potential. C’Thun is basically 30 Pen Flingers!

But even if the combo shells don’t end up working out for C’Thun, you can think of it as a stronger version of Elysiana. If there are any hard control decks in the meta, C’Thun is essentially the ultimate arms race weapon in these matchups much like Elysiana was in Control Warrior mirrors back in Rise of Shadows. So, look for hard control archetypes to potentially add C’Thun as a ‘fatigue’ win condition.

Score: 3

Classes: Paladin, Rogue, Warrior

N’Zoth, God of the Deep

N'Zoth, God of the Deep

N’Zoth is the most flexible Old God, requires the least focus in deck building and is probably the fastest to “activate” in a matchup. This kind of flexibility and ease of execution makes us believe it could end up as the most common Old God down the road, and the Old God that’s most likely to grow in power in future expansions. There’s not much you need to do to make N’Zoth work.

On the other hand, N’Zoth might be the Old God that’s most interactive and easiest to deal with. It produces a big board, but that big board can be cleared with just AOE removal. It doesn’t immediately kill the opponent, like C’Thun, without a response or counterplay options.

While we think N’Zoth could be the Old God that multiple classes could eventually utilize, the most striking candidates for now are Druid, Paladin and Warrior. All have received strong “menagerie” support, with defensive targets that are very nice to summon with the Old God.

Score: 3

Classes: Druid, Paladin, Warrior

Y’Shaarj, the Defiler

Y'Shaarj, the Defiler

Y’Shaarj is the parasitic Old God, as it relies entirely on the unique mechanic that was introduced in this set (Corrupt). The nature of its win condition is therefore determined by whatever corrupt cards exist in the deck. Since corrupt is a mechanic that’s exclusive to Darkmoon Faire, Y’Shaarj is the least likely Old God to grow stronger through future expansions. Beyond indirect buffs to the decks that utilize it, this is as good as it gets when it comes to its win conditions.

The most intriguing class to utilize Y’Shaarj is probably Warlock, enabling a fatigue win condition through Tickatus burning the opponent’s deck. However, Shaman could also be a strong candidate to utilize Y’Shaarj thanks to having one of the most powerful Corrupt cards in Dunk Tank, and the possibility of an OTK win condition through Quest Shaman running Circus Medics.

Score: 3

Classes: Shaman, Warlock

Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate

Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate

Curse of Flesh(378817).pngDevouring Hunger(378821).pngHand of Fate(378818).pngMindflayer Goggles(378820).pngMysterybox(378819).pngRod of Roasting(378822).png

We think Yogg-Saron is the most powerful of the Old Gods, and the most likely to eventually be nerfed or reworked to some degree. Unlike the other three, Yogg isn’t about building up to a conventional win condition, it’s about swinging the game in precarious situations and ruining your opponent’s day.

Based on the abilities of the Wheel of Yogg-Saron, Yogg is best when you’re even or behind on board. It’s less likely to leverage an advantage to a victory and can even backfire in that scenario.

Fitting Yogg-Saron into a deck isn’t trivial. It requires a spell heavy shell that can consistently hit the requirement before turn 10. You can quickly ramp to 10 mana with Druid, but that won’t mean much if your spell count on the way there is low.

Though many classes will be interested in the Master of Fate, the most likely classes to utilize Yogg-Saron well are those with established spell-heavy shells. Mage and Priest, the two notorious “Created By” classes, are the perfect fits to add to their clown fiesta resume.

Druid was the original abuser of Yogg, and with its spell-centric build as well as its ramping tools, it is the scariest Yogg prospect. Yogg-Saron’s comeback mechanics should be an incredible boost to a class that’s almost characterized by falling behind early.

My Greetings. Now bow down to the God of memes.

Score: 4

Classes: Druid, Mage, Priest

 

 

8 Comments

  1. Your ads are being even more disruptive than usual and making your articles pretty much unreadable. On iOS, it’s simply impossible to read with the page moving up and down every few seconds and the whole page reloading or crashing regularly. On PC, it’s “only” moving up and down every few seconds, making it extremely difficult to read. You really should make the ads constant size or move them to a separate column on the right of the page because this is ridiculous.

  2. This review makes me a little sad, given that my favorite classes to play have always been Shaman, Mage, and Druid. Hopefully once the set is actually out and the meta starts to settle, there will be some good decks there.

  3. Problem is you would need minions on both your side of the board and your opponents side of the board. Your best case scenario is 7 guys on each side of the board for 14 damage, which is a very unlikely scenario.

  4. Thanks for the great article! And also, I don’t know if I missed it but how strong does this set look compared to other recent sets?

  5. Etc + broom is a strong combo, right? That seems like the solid finisher for tempo warrior that you were talking about in the conclusion section

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